Effect of Wearing a New Prophylactic Orthosis on Postural Balance

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of an innovative prophylactic knee orthosis on postural balance. This prophylactic knee orthosis is designed with a compression that is oriented in a chosen direction. The purpose of this compression is to improve stability in dynamic situations. Orthoses are used to provide functional improvements to knee problems. However, more scientific validation is needed for this type of product. Methods: 20 sportsmen in team sports performed a functional test: the Y-Balance Test. This reliable and reproducible test allows to evaluate the postural balance of the lower limb. The subjects were tested in 3 conditions: prophylactic orthosis with innovative compression, control orthosis (with no compression) and without orthosis. The average of the three trials were collected in each direction and condition. Results: The prophylactic orthosis had a better standardized score in the anterior direction (p<0.05) and a better composite score (p<0.05) than the control orthosis (no compression). However, there were no differences in the normalized score in the other directions. There were no significant differences between the prophylactic orthosis and without orthosis. Conclusion: Wearing the prophylactic orthosis improves postural balance compared to a orthosis with no compression. But there is no difference between the prophylactic orthosis and without orthosis on postural balance.